Neverending Twist
by Kupo Stiltzkin
Summary: Shin Megami Tensei and the spin-offs one shot collections. Story 2 - Persona 4: spring, summer and winter have come to Kanji Tatsumi’s life all at once.
1. P3F: Neverending Twist

Title: Neverending Twist  
Rating: PG-13  
Warning: Persona 3: FES and slight Persona 4 spoilers  
Word Count: 1,121  
**_  
_****_'Encounter leads to Separation, Separation leads to Encounter, the neverending twist of fate.'_** Belladonna, P2:EP

-

Chihiro Fushimi came to us on graduation day, all stutter and awkward smile, with her eyes at the floor, and I couldn't help but wonder if the rumors that circulate about the student council affairs were true. About a certain treasurer and a new student council member.

"Congratulations, Takeba-senpai," Chihiro bowed until her eyes were covered by the glasses.

"Thank you, Fushimi," I said to the shorter girl, and glanced at the school building. March's sakura had bloomed in succession again this year, covering Gekkoukan's ground with white-pinkish petals that reflected off the sun, blinding the students' eyes. The school's rooftop was almost unseen, and beside me, I knew Aigis was fixing her eyes at that place, burning the image of the school's rooftop in her memory bank, about another March morning and another graduation. "Three years is a long time. I don't want to forget any of it."

They've placed a vase on the desk beside Junpei's for 40 days on their last year, and when a new student transferred in, Aigis was the one who removed the vase of pink gerberas, telling her classmates it was to honor a memory, to cherish his memories could also be done by moving on.

"Neither do I. That's why…I'm running for the Student Council president next year," Chihiro muttered, breaking me out of the day-dream, and for a second I wondered why this younger girl was telling me all this, to someone who she had barely spoken to. Oh, _right_, the rumors. _When you arrived at school with someone, you tend to fell in love with them_. In front of us, Fushimi was standing in the middle of sakura petal rain with eyes straight at me, not-slouched and brimming full of confidence. Behind her, the school's building shone like a newly-built, reminding me of sky-scraping tower, of midnights and other-selfs.

I pushed my bangs out of my eyes, blinked back the imminent tears and smiled back. "I wish you good luck, Fushimi."

Aigis returned to the lab later that summer. We said our goodbyes; we even declined from ordering food and went to a karaoke despite Mitsuru senpai's initial hesitation. For my farewell gift, I gave Aigis a new red ribbon which she immediately tied on her neck.

"This way I would resemble Yukari-san," she had commented with a Metis-like beam, patting the ribbon fondly. For the first time in many months, I remembered that she was not human. It didn't make the separation any easier, but we hugged each other before her leaving. A pot of pink geranium stood next to the one I had bought last year when she left.

In spite of my onslaught of emotions, I didn't dream that night.

-

I found the woman in the velvet dress standing in front of the dorm the next year, still wearing the impossible outfit, fixing her unique-yellowish pupils at the dorm's building. The Abyss of Time has been gone for a year now, and it showed no signs of a return.

"Are you still looking …?" The woman uttered slowly, taking her time to turn around, pointing a gloved finger at me. "For _him_?"

"I already found him," I answered, "or what's left of his wishes."

"Yet you're still unsettled, Yukari Takeba." The velvet woman said, "Why is it that you seemed reluctant to let go?"

"I never let go," My fingers slowly furled into fists, fixing my eyes defiantly back at her. "I never had any intentions to let go. If there's any chance of returning him, I'd fight for it with all of my power. I'd choose him over the world."

There was a curving of her lips that could be recognized as a cynic grin, and the velvet woman crossed her arms.

"I'm sorry, but who-"

"He chose the living over his own life," she whispered, "And bound himself to seal Death. He knew his fate the moment Death appeared in front of him."

"If I can change that--"

"My master has practiced such – you'd need to relieve yourself of your memories, Yukari Takeba, because the world you knew of would be no more, and everything starts anew. Master once gave a human this option, to defy death in exchange for his loved one, but that human could not keep to his word. He was no more," Strangely, her voice was stricken with grief. "_He_, on the other hand, had exhausted all options, because that was his choice. It is too late for him."

Somewhere along her long explanation, my mouth went dry with dread. "Then why do you tell me all this?! Why give me hope when you actually have none?"

"Because I can free him from that seal."

The shock never came. Ever since we found him crucified at Death's door, I had been pining, hoping for a release. "But he is not of this world anymore."

"True," her smile reminded me of _his_ Messiah, _his _Orpheus and even Thanatos _himself_, broken, stone-like and too beautiful to ever be real. "In the end it was for you to decide, Yukari-san."

Long after Elizabeth-the velvet woman later introduced herself- left, Isis' whisper rang loudly in my head, _Yukari, Yukari, don't be foolish. You knew, you understood clearly why he sacrificed himself._

Of course, I didn't tell her I'd rather be a fool.

When I turned to look at her and woke up with my pillow soaked with tears, I finally realized I've been dreaming again.

-

There was that brilliance of the streets when I stepped out of the apartment for work that day.

I was back at Kyoto and my mother was happily re-married with another man and expecting another baby. A small boy and his mother were next of me when I walked down the street, hand in hand. His timid smile was infectious, and he grinned at me when I walked past. "Pink's cute," he muttered, and for one cruel second he was another boy with phones over his ear.

When the green light started to blink, he was gone.

"Minato!" His mother screamed, and the boy was running for his ball, diving carelessly into the middle of the street. "Minato! Come back here!"

My mouth tasted like bile when I dived in to the street as an instantaneous reaction. The last thing I heard was the sound of screeching tires near my ear and the pain that disappeared almost instantly.

They said your life flashed before your eyes before your untimely demise.

To me, it did occur.

_He_ was standing next to my father at that supposed to be another side of the pretty river, the phones around his ears and dressed in Gekkoukan's uniform, extending one hand. A sweet small smile only for me.

"I've missed you, Yukari," he said, pulling me into an embrace, and that was all that mattered.**_  
_**


	2. P4: Guilty as charged

Title: Guilty as charged

Fandom: Persona 4

Word Count: 1,783

Summary: Spring, summer and winter have come to Kanji Tatsumi's life all at once.

*

My mother always told me to stay out of trouble.

Which is why, whenever the time comes for her to deal with the police because of some law offends I've done, she'd simply sigh and bowed her head deeply at the officers.

Not this time, though.

I've hit a real low this time, and not even my own mother would apologize or speak for me.

"…Why did you have to do it, Kanji?" See, it wasn't the words that knocked me down to the deepest level of Hell; it was her tone that killed me.

"Mom, please, just listen, I didn't mean it…it was –it was just an impulse, okay!?"

"Do you know how embarrassing it was to even walk outside? I fear that no one would even come to our store anymore."

"What the!? I said I didn't mean it to happen!"

Her voice cracked through the phone, and I was sure she was massaging her temple, the gray hair strands falling out of the tight bun, wondering what she ever did to deserve such a son. "How am I going to face the neighbors? Your father will be turning in his grave, and Naoto-kun…dear me, that poor, poor girl must be over-traumatized. She will never look at a man the same way again."

I fought that strong urge to smash the phone and continued talking. "Look, I'm only allowed one phone call, and you're the only one I could count on, I lost my cellphone and then the whole thing just got completely crazy. You have to ask someone to bail me out."

There was this eerie long silence from the other line, and my mother eventually sighed. "…I'm so ashamed of you, Kanji."

*BEEP**BEEP**BEEP**BEEP*

"…Mom? Mom! Mom!?"

The Sumaru city policemen pulled the phone handle from my hand, and hang it back into the receiver. "I told you, one phone call only. Back to the cell now, Kanji Tatsumi."

_Why in the world did this thing always happen to me?!_

-

I blamed it all on Yosuke senpai's magazine, NON-NO monthly July edition, particularly this article where they cover the swimsuit fashion show. It featured bathing suits in every style and colors, halter neck, one piece, bikini, thong and even the notorious g-string panties. Suffice to say that he saw me eyeing the said magazine and shoved it in to my hands, forcing me to give it a thorough 'reading'. Then, while I was browsing through it later that night with tissues stuck up my nostrils, one of the particular designs caught my eye. It was a black and white triangle shaped bikini, and matching tie-side bottom. My first thought was 'I bet it'll look good on Naoto'.

The next thing I knew I was ordering spandex and swimsuit sewing tools online, and spent the next night imagining Naoto's breast size as I sew the top, and magically have the said design ready before summer vacation. I called her up to the school's roof the day before, and she showed up with her boy uniform, removing her hat and fanning herself with it. "It's so hot here, Kanji. What do you want to talk about?"

"Tomorrow summer vacation starts."

"Yes, I think we talked about with Yosuke and the others in full detail almost every day, that we're going to visit Souji senpai at Sumaru City."

"He said there's a _beach_."

"True."

"And it's _summer_."

She sighed. "Kanji, whatever did I tell you about repeating information? 'It bore people quickly'."

People said 'actions speak louder than words', so I gave her the brown bag with my latest project inside wordlessly.

She raised her eyebrow, but took the bag eventually. "I guess this is for me…"

One of her eyebrow twitched, then the next one followed, and when she totally unwrap the swimsuit, both of her eyes aren't blinking. "A bikini."

"Yes. For you to wear on the beach."

"No."

"You didn't wear one in the pageant."

"No. No."

"…If I said please, will you wear them?"

"No, no, NO! I'm a detective, not a brainless bimbo that struts on the coastline half naked! I'm a – "

"Girl," I said finally.

At first I thought she was gonna throw the brown bag along with the contents to my face and slams the door on her way out, but Naoto ended up burying her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking. Oh right. She's not like the other girls.

"Just because I've escaped from humiliating myself in front of the whole school," she started, rising her face slowly, "now I have to embarrass myself in front of you?"

"It's not embarrassing! Please, at least, just ONCE! Don't let my efforts of sewing this go to waste! MAKE ME A MAN!" I was almost practically at my knees. Hah, Kanji Tatsumi, punk turned doormat.

"You made _these_?" Naoto's furrowed brows were turning straight again.

"No-I mean, er, yes."

Rubbing her chin thoughtfully for a few seconds, she turned to me finally, a tired but triumphant smile in her lips. "As you wish, Kanji. I'll wear these to the beach."

I almost jumped to hug her, but my self restraint knocked at the perfectly right timing.

She raised one of her index finger. "Under one condition."

-

Souji-senpai's parents moved to Sumaru City early this year, and Rise was also planning to held a concert there, so our group took a long journey to visit them with the train.

The first place to stop by in our itinerary wasn't Souji's house; instead, it was the beach. I'm willing to bet my favorite "Sewing all the way" book that Teddy's the one who planned our itinerary to the last detail.

Chie ended up sulking all they way there, while Naoto quietly slinked to join the girls to change. From under her hat, she shot me a penetrating look, and I quietly gulped. Not that it'll help much.

In a hot summer day at a packed beach like this, sometimes you wished there were enough Inaba fog to cover you.

The first thing I heard when I stepped out of the changing room was snickers, countless of them, and then there were laughs. Yukiko-senpai's very annoying, high pitched and uncontrollable laugh.

"Ka-kanji, what in God's name are you w-wearing?" she managed to blurt out between chuckles, holding her stomach.

"…A bathing suit." _That I made myself_.

There was long, long silence from Teddy and Yosuke, as they already knew the whole deal: Naoto had agreed on wearing the swimsuit under the term that I wear the exactly same cut and design to the beach. All the way to the tie-side detail. Unfortunately, I've pretty much blown my cash on spandex the first time, and have to resort to cheap, non-stretching polyester on the second set.

But you know…wearing a pair of bikini to this packed beach, aside from having this liberating and windy feeling on the south region of your body, really needed guts. But unlike Teddy, I've never been a fan of Speedo, anyway.

Yukiko burst out laughing again, and I waited patiently while my vein was probing edgily on my forehead. The laughing, pointing and snickering from the other beach visitors were getting more and more aggravating by the hour, and I fought the great urge to kick down the door of Naoto's changing room.

A blue head poked out of door after what seemed like a decade, and Naoto ever so slowly walked out, and I held my breath…only to be greeted by the sight of her in a long, white and fluffy bathing robe, clutching the front part of the gown tightly.

"Oy!"

"What?" She replied, irritated. "I'm just checking if you're holding your end of the bargain. It looked…_weird_ on you."

I felt like banging my head on the door. No, really. "Of course! So?"

"Fine, fine….such an impatient man," she said, cheeks flushing slightly, untying the bow on her waist, pushing the robe off from her shoulders. Behind me, I could hear Teddy and Yosuke-senpai gasped dramatically.

The black and white spandex clung snugly on Naoto's soft, soft curves, revealing ivory skin and the pearly bosom underneath that made you want to treat it like a lollipop, wondering all they way if I'll ever reach the center.

_Thank you, God. Now Kanji Tatsumi can die happy as a man._

My heart was pumping an erratic beat in my chest, sending blood all over, and further down, south and even further south….But then the next thing I heard was a scream in horror.

People screaming in horror at me.

-

"Nobody would tell me anything. Yukiko apparently were too busy to talk," Souji senpai motioned with his thumb to the red figure huddled in a corner, shoulders shaking wildly. "Yosuke and Teddy refused to come, said something about 'fearing for their lives', and Chie was busy consoling Naoto, who was severely traumatized." He turned to me finally. "What actually happened?"

I shook my head, and continued to stare at him from behind the bars.

"Judging from the situation, can I conclude the worst?"

"What's the worst?"

He looked uncomfortable. "That you, uh, tried to force your idea with Naoto."

I perfectly knew he only said this thing because we're separated by steel bars. The sentence would have been worded out quite differently have there been no barriers. "Sort of…"

Our fearless, valiant, ruthless-with-the-enemies leader clamped his mouth in shock, and shook his head. "…Kanji, Kanji, I never knew you could be so low."

"What do you mean low? I bet you guys have the exact same idea in your heads too! Just don't blame me for carrying the idea out!"

"Yes, but having an imagination and doing it was a whole different matter. Look where it got you!"

"Well, I didn't know it was a crime!"

He raised one of his eyebrows. "You didn't know that rape IS a crime?"

"WHAT?! Rape?! Whoever said anything about rape?"

At exactly this moment, Yukiko's loud, loud laugh finally blurted out, and now it's Souji's turn to look completely dazzled and cleared his throat. "Uh, sorry, officer Suou. I forgot to ask, but what were the charges against Kanji?"

The red haired Sumary city policemen pushed his glasses up, and gave me a look. "Indecent exposure. At the sight of a bikini. Luckily I was in the vicinity, think of how many innocent eyes of women and children you've destroyed today, boy."

_Yes, cursed non-stretching polyester, I'll curse and drag you along to hell with me for ruining my teenage life. Whoever knew a bad case of morning wood can fuck up your life so badly?_

Souji senpai stared at me, turned to the ripped black and white bikini bottom lying on the cell's floor, and joined Yukiko-senpai in the corner to laugh themselves sick.


End file.
